Pig Deal

The crowd buzzes. The trumpets blare. And the competitors squeal as they rumble around an oval track in search of the victor's spoils:

A cream-filled cookie.

Doesn't take much to motivate a pig.

At the South Florida Fair, west of West Palm Beach, the pig races are a big draw.

Who can resist them? With names like Dustin Hogman and Britney Spearibs, the plump athletes keep visitors entertained with their mad dash.

Taking to the track about five times a day during the fair's 17-day run, which ended Sunday, four pigs race snout to snout around a 180-foot oval track. It's not a long race. The record speed is 6.5 seconds.

Wayne Rosaire and his family have been touring with Rosaire's Royal Racers for 16 years, racing the pigs 50 weeks a year around the country. He owns about 70 pigs on a farm near Sarasota.

Pigs are smarter than dogs, Rosaire says. They learn quickly. It only takes a week to teach them to loop the track, and they get it mostly by watching other pigs.

During the races, Rosaire puts out four breeds of pigs. But the crowd favorites are Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs.

"They're the slowest, but I build them up like they're rockets," he says. "They'll pile up, get stuck right before the finish line and leave `debris' all over the track, but the crowds just love them."

So much so, some fans visit every year. Rosaire is big on crowd participation and always picks out cheerleaders, usually children, for each pig.

Most times, you can't tell who's squealing with delight: the pigs or the audience.